


Life isn't Fair for Anybody, Not Just Me

by The_Gong_of_Doom



Category: Friday Night Lights
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-19
Updated: 2013-06-16
Packaged: 2017-12-12 07:31:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/808937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Gong_of_Doom/pseuds/The_Gong_of_Doom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU story of what takes place in and around Matt leaving in Season 4. Dark story where things go very, very, VERY badly for Julie.</p>
<p>No, worse then that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Bereft

**Author's Note:**

> As in the summary this is an AU story that takes place during the 4th season of the show. Some stuff remains as it was on the show, some stuff doesn't.
> 
> Payton Taylor, the wheaten terrier introduced in the story Always Glad To See You returns and is joined by Jordan Taylor, the Taylors second wheaten, this one a boy, and yes he's named after Michael Jordan because Michael Jordan is AWESOME. 
> 
> NO ONE DENIES THIS IS TRUE.
> 
> Jordan also happens to be Eric and Julie's favorite basketball player.
> 
> Eric and Tami are both over at East Dillon as the story begins, and how they got there is explained in the story.
> 
> *Shakes command stick*
> 
> As usual I demand ENDLESS FAWNING and GUSHING LOVE in your reviews, or you can write that you LOATHE IT WORSE THAN HITLER AND I SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED NEAR ANY SORT OF WRITING IMPLEMENT.
> 
> *Shakes command stick*

 

                                   **"People think the ocean's about life, and freedom. But beaches are the most impassable barriers in nature. People worship them like they worship outer space, or death, or anything and anyone else that says no to them and means it."**

                                                                                       ----Pietro "Bearclaw" Brnwa                                                               

 

                                  " **When they strap me in the electric chair, please tell them the murder was just."**

                                                                                        ---- Dr. Perry Cox

 

                                  **"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are stronger in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills."**

                                                                                        ----Ernest Hemingway

 

 

 

Julie opened the front door and walked down the hallway. Tami saw her and said, “That better have been a great concert, babe.”

Tears streaming down her face, Julie said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She sobbed and slumped against the wall then slid to the floor and covered her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Tami got out of her chair and came sat beside Julie, putting her arm around her. Payton came trotting over, wagging her tail, then sat and whined when Julie didn’t reach out and pat her. “What happened hun, did something happen?”

Between sobs, Julie said, “I think he’s leaving. I really think he’s leaving. And it’s my fault. It’s my fault, it’s all my fault.”

Tami rubbed Julie’s shoulder saying, “No, it’s not baby. It’s not your fault. It’s okay.”

Two hours later, Tami came into her and Eric’s bedroom closed the door and changed into a pair of sweatpants and a Dillon Panthers T-shirt. She slid under the covers as Eric came out of the bathroom and got into bed beside her.

“Is Julie still crying or is she asleep?”

Tami pushed her hair back and sighed. “I’d like to say she’s cried out for now, but I really doubt that. And I don’t know that I’m gonna get much sleep, let alone Julie. Payton and Jordan are in with her.”

“So what’s this about Matt leaving?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know if they got in a huge fight in Austin or on the way back and they broke up, but _something_ happened and I think Matt is leaving Dillon.”

“Leavin’—where’s he gonna go?”

“I have no idea, and I don’t think Julie does either, but from her reaction, he’s going somewhere.”

“You don’t think he’s gonna kill himself, or try to?

Tami started to speak, then closed her mouth and thought for a minute. “I don’t think so. Not with his Grandmother still around. If she wasn’t or if she had died after hearing about Henry’s death….maybe, but,” she shook her head. “I can’t see that. You’ve always said that Matt is tough and he is I think that maybe he just needs a break from everything. I know Julie has been kind of bugging him about his dad, but maybe it’s the whole college thing.”

“What about it?”

“Well, Julie told me that she and Matt were at the Alamo Freeze and she was working on one of her college essays and he asked her where she had applied and she told him and she said he kind of shut down, like he does sometimes when he’s upset but decides not to show it.”

“So she’s going away to college, she’s no different than millions of high school kids many of whom have boy or girlfriends. And this thing they have, this puppy love, we—“

“Eric Taylor, don’t you dare do that. Don’t you dare try and denigrate their relationship like that.”

“What? All I said was tha—“

“Eric, Matt and Julie are in love. This isn’t puppy love. Not now. I’ll give you that it probably was puppy love at the beginning, I know that Matt was more interested in Julie than she was in him, he had a crush on her, but they love each other. That love is real and it is important and it is a true thing and I am not going to allow you to make it anything less, so you need to think about the words you say right now.”

Eric tossed the sheets aside, went to the bathroom and came back with a glass of water. He drank half of it, then sat on the edge of the bed.

“I think Matt was upset that the only school Julie had applied to that was in state was UT Austin. Everything else is at least 500 miles away. And, I don’t know, I know I said that they love each other, but I think that Matt has been more invested in their relationship than Julie has. She kept blowing him off, and she did break up with him once and said she thought they should break up at least twice.” She shook her head. “I would like to sit him down and talk with him like a counselor, but I don’t think I can. I’m too close and Julie would think I was trying to find out…I don’t know things that she can’t tell me.”

“I thought you told her that she could talk with you about anything, no matter how hard it was.”

“I did, but it’s one of the things that you don’t really mean. Except I did mean it, but….” Tami ran her hands through her hair. “I think he needs to talk to a counselor, just to let some things out. Someone who isn’t going to judge. What happened that night at the dinner table, I don’t know.”

“Well, Matt’s tough. He’s always been tough.”

“Are you even listening to me? I’m not talking about being physically tough.”

“Neither am I.”

“Just run through the boy’s life for a minute. His dad was not the easiest person to live with, and that’s coming from his own mother. I can’t imagine the verbal tearing down Matt and his mother must have gotten when he was a child. Then both his mom and dad up and leave. Not his mom leaves and takes Matt with her or his dad takes him. They both abandon him and his grandmother has to pick him up and raise him. And she does a damn good job, but she’s also got to earn some money and try and keep that shotgun house from falling down around them. And that boy got his first job when he was what, seven?  Which he didn’t have a choice in. And then somewhere along the line Lorraine’s dementia comes along and starts to take hold, and of course there’s no money to get her properly tested, so Matt, in addition to going to school and having at least one job, has to keep the house together, shop for groceries, and cook and clean. I’m just thankful his grandmother didn’t smoke, ‘cause I’m positive she would have burned the house down. Then he starts playing football, because, well, he’s a boy and here in Dillon that’s just what you do if you’re a boy and he ends up being backup to Jason Street and then when Jason got hurt he gets thrown out there and you and Buddy and the entire damn town expect and demand that he be the second coming of Tom Brady.”

Eric opened his mouth, but Tami put her hand up, so he shut it and frowned.

“Then he gets to have Buddy Garrity coming onto the field at practice and say what a horrible job he’s doing. This is a teenage boy, Eric, a high school sophomore and you did nothing. You just stood there and let Buddy go on and on about how horrible Matt was and how he had found this ‘real’ QB who was that Voodoo kid and that turned out so well. Then his dad comes back from Iraq and that was worse than oil and water. Matt **NEVER** had your full support. He was always looking over his shoulder, whether it was on the football field or when he started taking an interest in Julie, there was always another QB that you or Buddy were pushing to take his place. And when he and Julie started seeing each other you did your hardest to try and force them apart. Then last year, Joe and JD McCoy come sailing in and you yank the carpet out from Matt again, and when he said he could be a wide receiver, you just ignored him; it took Julie speaking for him at dinner for you to give him a chance and even then all you said was that you’d think about it. He gave up art school because he loves Julie, he **loves** our daughter and also because of his grandmother. And this whole time, he’s been trying to juggle going to school, working at least one job nearly 30 hours a week, playing and practicing football, and taking care of his grandmother and himself. And that is not fair. I wouldn’t ask that of a college student let alone a teenager. Do you realize Matt has had to pretty much act like an adult and make decisions that only an adult should have to make since he was eight years old? Do you know how awful that is? And despite that, despite all of that, he is one of the nicest, most polite, most **decent** people you or I have ever met. For that we can probably thank his grandmother.” Tami reached over and drank the rest of the water in Eric’s glass, and then Eric went and filled it from the tap in the bathroom, and put it on the bedside table. He leaned against the bathroom doorway.

“I know how Matt and Julie feel about each other, it’s just….you weren’t the one who walked in on them last year.”

“Well, Julie was right, you should have knocked.”

“I did knock!”

“Well, you should have knocked harder and maybe waited until someone came to the door instead of just waltzing inside.”

“Listen, I know how they feel about each other, and I feel horrible about what has happened to him the past few months, but what do you want me to do, go over to his grandmother’s house and drag him over here and lock him in our guestroom so he doesn’t run away? Wouldn’t you say we have our own set of problems right now, with Joe McCoy trying to get both of us fired and run out of town? Yes, I probably went overboard a little bit when Julie and Matt were first seeing each other, but like I said to her, I know what boys, especially football players are like, what they think about, how they act and what they do, and honestly I can’t install cameras in their houses to keep an eye on 'em all day and night. So when a  boy, who happened to be the starting quarterback on the team I coached started taking an interest in our daughter, I think you’d cut me a little slack in trying to deal with the situation. Looking at it now, I’m….sorry about how the way some things happened, I could have handled some things in a less….”

“Less ‘coach’ like way?”

“Yeah, less like a coach, more like a father, but honestly Tami, is there really that much difference?”

“With you, sometimes not as much as Julie or I would like.”

Eric leaned over and kissed Tami then opened the bedroom door. “I’m gonna check on Julie. I think we should let her sleep in, let her stay home if she wants, unless she says otherwise, ai’ight?”

“All right.”


	2. Chapter 2

Julie lay on her side in bed, facing away from the door, with Payton draped over her legs. Her mom had been  right, she wasn’t nearly cried out, but she had heard some of what her parents had said last night, even though she had pretended to be asleep when her dad came in to check on her. In the morning he came in to let Payton and Jordan out and sat on her bed and told her it was okay if she wanted to stay home today, or even a few days. He looked tired and she thought that he and mom got a little more sleep then she did, but not much. She turned onto her back and thought about how things had gotten to this point.

It had started during halftime of State when Eric had benched JD and put Matt in. Despite Matt and Tim’s bringing them to the brink of victory, Joe McCoy was furious and had gone around town and on the radio telling everyone that if JD had stayed In the game, not only would Dillon have won it would have been a blowout. And somewhere along the line Joe had found out a few things which he used to weasel his way to the top of the heap of boosters and to get Eric and Tami fired.

He found out about Buddy’s infidelity and that the boosters didn’t give a damn about that, partly because a good number of them had been or were just as guilty of being unfaithful in their marriages, and partly because well, that was Buddy being Buddy. He lived life to the fullest and so some excesses were going to happen.

But when Joe found out about a former gang banger named Santiago who had not only been living with Buddy, but Buddy had used his influence to get Santiago on the team at Dillon, well that was going a bit far. And then it came to light that there had been a party at Buddy’s apartment with Santiago and all his gang buddies and that Santiago had been arrested and charged with assault and armed robbery and had **still** been living at Buddy’s.

The final blow for Buddy had been the fight he had started at the Landing Strip and the kind of attention that had brought. If it had been a fight at one of the other bars in Dillon everyone would have just shrugged their shoulders, but a strip club? Wasn’t the whole point of a strip club to relax a man, to get all that aggression out of him? Did Dillon really want the head of the boosters to be a man who got in fights at strip clubs? That caused more than $50,000 in damage during those fights? Did Dillon want a head booster who harbored a vicious criminal?

Yes, yes, back when he had been a student, Buddy had led the Panthers to a win at State, but that had been, what 25 years ago? Joe had said or insinuated all of these things to various people, boosters and people who were friends of boosters, especially those boosters who were more than a little tired of Buddy having lorded it over them all these years, and having been in their eyes, selfish and very stingy in sharing the benefits and rewards of being a booster.

The fact that Joe had started throwing money around, in amounts that even Buddy had never done, led people to step over to his side of the line. And it hadn’t helped Buddy that he had to deal with all of these problems and the major distraction of having Tim Riggins dating or seeing or having sex with his daughter Lyla. But with all of the eyes on him he couldn’t do anything except let it happen, which of course led to more jabbering behind his back.

As far as Eric was concerned, in some ways it was easier getting him fired, thanks to Jason Street making an appearance at a booster’s breakfast a few weeks after the loss at State. Joe had already been making noises about Eric’s decision to bench JD and what Joe thought were horrible play calling decisions, but seeing Jason in his wheelchair, his eyes lit up, though he was very careful not to tip his hand. It was three days later that he had run into a booster and asked him about Jason and got the whole story. Or enough of the story so that Joe could take it and twist it and spin it to his own ends.

Which were that Coach Eric Taylor was a vicious uncaring and cruel man who regularly abused his players at practices and it was Eric’s actions, or rather his deliberate and calculated inaction, in refusing to take even 20 minutes to teach Jason Street the proper tackling technique, which were solely and directly responsible for Jason Street’s being paralyzed and in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. The fact that Jason didn’t bear Coach Taylor any ill will and called him at least once a week to talk was immaterial, Jason had sued Eric, a fact which Joe continually pounded home on the radio with Slammin’ Sammy Meade and tossed into casual conversations with boosters and non-boosters.

Then there was the matter of the “Bull in the Ring” drill which had been videotaped by a news crew during one of the first practices during Eric’s first year as head coach. In the drill, if you could call it that, really it was an out and out savage beating; one player would be singled out and made to stand in the middle of a circle made up of his teammates, who would then take turns running at him at full speed and trying to tackle him. The fact that many players had used this particular occasion to get a few punches and kicks in because Tim Riggins was the player in the middle was a little icing on the cake for Joe as it turned out it had been Riggins who had taken JD to the party where he had gotten drunk last season. So this was retroactive payback, as far as Joe was concerned. It also helped Joe’s cause that “Bull in the Ring” had been specifically outlawed by more than 30 state high school athletic associations. The fact that Texas wasn’t one of the 30 meant little to Joe; it even helped him as it let him be seen as a crusader for safety as he pledged $5,000 towards a bill to make the drill illegal in Texas.

 There was also the matter of Coach Taylor rounding up all of his players at 11:00 PM one night and in the middle of a thunderstorm making the team sprint across a waist high stream and then up an 80 foot high hill over and over and over and over again. Joe hadn’t been able to pin down the exact number of times the team had made the run but he had settled on saying “Way more than a dozen.”

Tami Taylor, in some ways she had been the easiest to topple. The boosters had never really taken a shine to her, mainly because of the decisions she had made while she was principal at Dillon High School. The whole incident with the Jumbotron was a thorn in the boosters side and not only were they pissed at Tami for freezing the money for it; they were pissed at Buddy for not simply steamrolling over her. After all, she was just the principal and this was **football** dammit.

There was also the matter of her appearance. No one could deny that Tami Taylor had a fine figure, it was just that….well, Joe would **never** say that she sometimes dressed like a slut, but as principal of a high school, was it really too much to ask for her to wear a blouse or dress occasionally that didn’t show off her cleavage or at least not as much cleavage?

But then, late in the school year it turned out that a student named Becky Sproles had gotten pregnant thanks to Luke Cafferty who happened to be one of Eric’s players. It was bad enough that teenagers were promiscuous in places like Los Angeles and New York, but in a small town like Dillon? It was just….outrageous. And it turned out that Becky didn’t want to keep the child and put it up for adoption, she wanted to get an abortion, but didn’t know how to go about getting one. And instead of going to her counselor at school, Becky had, thanks to Tim Riggins, gone straight to Tami Taylor, who had practically marched arm in arm with her to the women’s clinic two towns over and held her hand the entire time that precious innocent child inside of her was **murdered** and removed from her body and thrown in the trash. Luke’s mother being fanatically anti-abortion helped Joe a great deal.

That Tami had simply done what she was allowed to do which was to counsel Becky and not recommend any specific option and when Becky had said, “But….but what if I don’t want to keep it,” Tami had nodded and said, “Well, I can give you some literature about that,” was immaterial and simply muddied up what was a very clear black and white, right and wrong issue.

Of course Joe used this to his advantage, but was afraid that he had overplayed his hand when he heard just how rabid Cafferty’s mother was. She wasn’t going to be satisfied with Tami being fired. No, that wasn’t going to be enough by half. She wanted a public shaming, followed by a public flogging, with actual tarring and feathering capped off with Tami in chains being marched off to prison for the next 20 years.

Eric and Tami were lucky that Buddy was there. Even after being forced out as head of the Dillon boosters, that didn’t mean everyone had abandoned him or that no one would listen. He managed though some machinations that he never told the Taylors about to get Eric an interview, not a job but an interview for the head coaching position of the East Dillon high school football team, and also get Tami an interview for a counselors job, also at East Dillon. And thanks to good interviews and Buddy being a former teammate of the principal of East Dillon, both Eric and Tami got the respective positions.

Julie hadn’t joined them at East Dillon. She had been told by letter that she had been grouped with those students who would be attending Dillon. Which wasn’t the best thing in the world, but at least she would have Landry and Devin as classmates. In fact they had arranged their schedules to have all of their classes together except for band.

Then she found out that Landry and Devin had been assigned to East Dillon. This was not good. But there was some shuffling around and students were allowed to fill out a form asking to be sent to one or the other school if they felt where they were it wasn’t a good fit, which had given Eric a rare chance to smile and laugh and say, “Well, isn’t high school pretty much about not fitting in and being miserable and picked on?” Her mom had smacked him really hard on the back of the head for that and he’s started to say something, but the look she gave him made him grumble under his breath and go back to watching game tape.

So Julie had filled out the form and waited for the letter saying she had been transferred East Dillon. And waited. And then Tami had called, and gotten talk a lot of nonsense, except that maybe Julie should fill out the form once more, you know how things can get lost, paperwork and all that. So another form was filled out and sent off and….nothing until the first week of school when Julie got a letter saying that after careful review she was to attend Dillon high school. By that time she had had 5 tires on her car slashed and been picked up and nearly tossed in a pool by JD McCoy and had started to hear whispers and chatter in the halls and the dread had started to settle over her.

But she still had Matt and it wasn’t like Landry and Devin abandoned her entirely. The four of them would hang out at the Alamo Freeze or at practice for Crucifictorius. But Matt started spending more and more time with his mentor Richard Parker and Devin and Landry, well, it wasn’t  like they faded away, but Landry was actually getting some playing time on the East Dillon team, so he needed to spend more time in the wright room and watching film and….well Julie knew that drill.

She and Devin had had kind of a fun time at the gay bar, at least until Devin had spied her’ type’ and disappeared with her for two hours. But Devin had always been more Landry’s friend than Julie’s and well, Julie had pretty much dropped Lois towards the end of the last school year.

Her constant literally drooling over Tim Riggins had just been….urgh **it was the only thing she’d talk about**. If Julie started talking about a movie, Lois would somehow steer it around to Tim. And Lois had never gotten over the fact that Julie had actually been hugged by Tim and that he had saved her life during that tornado scare two years ago. Julie always rolled her eyes when Lois brought it up, as she made it seem like Tim and Julie had been caught out in the open and he had made her lay down and then covered her with his body. The truth was much less dramatic, and Tim’s choice of where to huddle hadn’t been the wisest, beneath a shelf of various scissors and Exacto-blades. Julie was very glad that she had never told Lois that Tim had lived in the Taylor’s house for a couple of weeks or what had happened to make Tim leave.

The tire slashing’s had continued and then the pushing and shoving and tripping at school. She hadn’t told her parents about any of that or the slashed tires. Only Matt and Tim had known and only about the slashing's.

And then Matt’s dad had died.

And then Matt left.

Now she was all alone over at Dillon, a single gazelle surrounded by more than 2,000 lions.

Bereft.


	3. Chapter 3

JD sat at his table in the lunch room, surrounded by his crew, which consisted of a couple of offensive linemen, some rally girls and a rotating cast of other players, sycophants and toadies, all hoping to curry favor. The lineman were JD’s bodyguards both on and off the field, though they also served as his muscle off the field when he wanted to mess with someone and didn’t want to get his hands dirty. He was finishing up his second cheeseburger when Scott Taylor, a wide receiver nudged him and said, “Hey, didn’t you say you were gonna tap that ass?” Taylor pointed across the lunch room and JD watched Julie Taylor get up from a table and walk out of the lunchroom.

“Yeah, but with Saracen around it---“

“He’s gone.”

“What?”

“He’s gone. He left.”

“What? Left Dillon?”

“I guess. He quit Panther Pizza and I haven’t seen him working anywhere else and one thing about Saracen, he’s _always_ had a job, since he was like 8 _._ I heard he dropped out of Dillon Tech. And there haven’t been any cars in his driveway or in front of his house for at least a week.”

“Well, he could have gone on a vacation or something.”

“To where? Las Vegas?” JD snorted “Disneyland? And if he did go on a vacation you know Taylor would have gone with him.”

“I….eh, maybe, but I, I think they were fighting, or at least arguing lately.” JD thought back to the party at the beginning of the season, when he had picked Julie up to throw her in the pool. His hand had slid all the way up her leg until it had jammed into her crotch, not quite _The Shocker_ but she had certainly squeaked, partly in surprise, but partly in _pleasure_? Not that he wouldn’t have thrown her into the pool, you can be damn sure he would have if Saracen hadn’t shown up.

 It had been interesting the first day of school when he and Julie ended up having three classes together, even sitting next to each other in social studies. But they hadn’t spoken to each other since the party. JD saw her in the halls at school, sometimes saw her getting pushed and shoved and tripped, and occasionally like today, he’d see her in the cafeteria, always sitting at a table by herself. But that was pretty rare as people had thrown food and milk cartons at her a few times. And then there was the slashing of her tires. JD smiled when he pictured that.

Scott looked at him. “What are you smiling for? Thinking about fucking her until she cries and her pussy bleeds?”

“Fuck off, I’m still eating.” JD shoved the last of his burger in his mouth, and then toyed with his fries. “Have to admit; watching her get pushed around is kind of funny." A smirk crossed his lips. “Can you find out if Saracen is really gone?”

“How am I gonna do that?”

“Ask around. You used to hang out with him and Riggins and Clarke last year. Go to Panther Pizza and ask for him. Hell, call up Tim Riggins and say that you and Saracen were supposed to hang out but you haven’t heard from him or something. Y’know what, forget that, just call up his house and ask whoever answers the phone. Use Riggins name, it’s not like his grandmother would know the difference or his mom. You’re at least half right.”

“About what?”

“I might not make Taylor’s pussy bleed, but she’s gonna be crying for days and begging for mercy before I’m done.”


	4. Chapter 4

Julie closed her locker and walking down the hallway, looking over her shoulder when she thought she heard someone laughing. She’d been in the library working on a report, but left when two boys wouldn’t stop throwing paper and spitballs at her, and the librarian had mysteriously disappeared.  She walked out into the student parking lot and stopped. Both drivers side tires were slashed and her left headlight had been smashed. As she walked around the car she pulled out her cell phone and called Riggins Rigs, hoping that Tim would be there.

“Riggins Rigs, this is Tim.”

“Hey Tim, it’s Julie Taylor.”

Julie heard Tim sigh and pictured him shaking his head and trying to push his hair out of the way. “How many Jules?”

“Aren’t you going to sa-“

“How many tires should I bring Julie?”

“Three. And I need new headlights.”

“Anything else? What about the taillights?”

“No, they look okay.”

“All right. I’m gonna bring the truck over and take your car to the garage, should be about 20 minutes. You okay with that?”

“Yeah, I guess. Thanks Tim.”

“Yeah. See you in a bit.”

Julie put the phone in her backpack and sat on the hood of the car, looking at the school and the parking lot, which was empty except for her car. Over the years she’d gotten used to people toilet papering her parents’ house or putting a bunch of **FOR SALE** signs in the yard. Except that wasn’t true, she’d never gotten used to it, though that sort of thing had happened a lot less once they had gotten a dog, and had stopped completely now that they had two. Not that Payton and Jordan weren’t sweet and loving and always happy to see just about anybody, but they seemed to have a knack for knowing when people were sneaking around the Taylors house in the early hours of the morning, and showed no hesitation in letting everyone else in the house know. It did lead to Julie banishing the dogs from her room  for two months after they started barking and woke her so suddenly she shrieked fell out of bed and dislocated her shoulder, which led to more shrieking.

 The ongoing situation with her tires being shredded and the shoving and tripping at school got her thinking of some way to bring at least one of the dogs to school with her. But she figured that if people were slashing her tires they wouldn’t think much of stabbing a dog. She thought her car alarm must have gone off when her headlights were smashed, but she’d been inside and no one ever paid attention to them anyway; they were just like background noise.

“Julie, hey Julie.”

She looked up and saw JD McCoy jogging across the parking lot. He slowed to a walk, then circled her car.

“Wow. What, what the hell happened?”

“Like you don’t know.”

“What are you talking about, you think I did this?”

“Either you or more likely you got someone else to do it, one of the cronies always flitting around your table in the lunch room.”

“Why would I do that? And how could I get away with it?”

“Oh please. You’re QB 1 of the Dillon Panthers thanks to your dad and all the money he threw around and that means you get away with everything. You could probably shoot someone and they’d delay the trial or whatever until after State or your dad would bribe the judge or, or whatever.”

JD sighed and crossed his arms. “Look, Julie, I’m not Tim Riggins. I don’t show up to practice or to games drunk or skip school for a week. I’ve never had any beer,” he smiled, “okay, yeah that’s not true. I’ve had booze twice and been drunk twice, once because of Tim Riggins and once because….well, I don’t know why I got drunk earlier this year. I guess it was maybe because it was the beginning of the season and we have a really good team, I don’t know. And I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?”

“For, y’know, for getting in your face at the party and grabbing you like I did. I wasn’t raised like that, but it was supposed to be a Dillon Panther only party and then you just like, appeared and it felt like you were in my face and I don’t know, I guess maybe I thought you were your dad.”

“You thought I was my _dad?!_ ”

“I don’t know, I mean that was like a week after my mom left and I was upset about that and the stuff with my parents had been building since the playoffs last year and I don’t know, I guess it just burst at that party.”

“Your mom left? Are, are your parents getting a divorce? What happened?”

‘I don’t know about a divorce, but they’re separated. She’s in Dallas, at least she was last time I talked to her. She’s been trying to find a place to live. It had been building up for a while since the playoffs last year….actually probably before that, maybe for years. I mean, all I’ve been doing is drills and quarterback camps and football camps….I’d never had an actual hamburger or steak until like a month ago.”

“You were a vegetarian?”

“Nah, it was this special diet, no red meat like I said, chicken, fish, vegetables, potatoes, turkey burgers, I still haven’t had any sweetened cereal. And then there was the thing with Madison.” JD looked away.

“Madison?” Julie had heard a few stories about her. She wasn’t quite a slut, but a couple of the football players had passed her around. Julie had even heard she’d been talking about making a move on Matt, but Tyra had put a stop to that idea.

“Yeah, I met her at a party last year, she thought it was weird because I was drinking milk instead of beer and we talked for a while. Then she showed up at my locker with brownies, which I couldn’t eat because…”

“You’d never had them and they weren’t part of your diet.” Julie flashed a quick smile.

“Right. But it turned out she was in two of my classes, so she started sitting next to me, and then….well, she showed up at my house one day and just, like walked on in like she’d been there a million times. It really pissed my dad off, he said she was a distraction, and it got worse when I snuck out and went….well we went for a drive. That was the first time I ever heard my dad yell at my mom, I mean really yell. He was throwing stuff around and breaking stuff. I guess, I guess my mom wanted me to be a little more normal, she didn’t have a problem with Madison. But then my dad called her parents and…”

“What?”

“He told them they had a slut for a daughter and that if she came near me he’d get a restraining order. And he made the school transfer her out of my classes. I guess she transferred to a different school, maybe east Dillon, no one’s seen her here this year.” He sighed. “Look, this is getting away from my apology. I’m really sorry for what happened and what I did at that party. I’ve been wanting to say this for a while, but you never even look my way in class, I’ve even tried to pass you a couple of notes. I really don’t know anything about this,” as he pointed to Julie’s car. “I mean, I’ve heard some people saying stuff about your dad, my dad’s said a _LOT_ , but look, I just want to play football and go to school. Well, okay, maybe I’m not in love with school. And yeah, I’ve heard people saying things about you.”

“What kind of things?”

JD flushed and shook his head. “Y’know, the kind of things people say about people they don’t like.”

“Oh come on. I’m not gonna slap you or anything. Compared to walking out here every other day and finding my tires slashed and being tripped and shoved in the hallways in there,” Julie nodded her head towards the school, “having people call me names is pretty easy. Let me think, I bet slut gets thrown around a lot, right? Maybe….cooze? And I can think of a couple girls who probably call me a cunt, right?”

JD held his hands up. “Julie, why are you doing this? It’s like I said, I didn’t know anything about this happening to your car, or the people pushing you around and stuff. Yeah, I have heard people say those words you said, but I haven’t been saying any of it. And despite being QB1 or whatever that doesn’t mean I can just tell the people saying that stuff to knock it off or to shut up. During games I can’t get the guys in our huddle to shut up, so forget getting a bunch of kids at school to stop. And even if they did stop when I was around, we both know they’d start up when I left. I’m sorry that it’s happening but what can I do to stop it?” JJ looked around. “Um, are you gonna stay here all night? Shouldn’t you call like, your mom or Matt?”

“I called Riggins Rigs, they said th—“ Julie stopped as she saw the Riggins Rigs tow truck come into the parking lot and stop in front of her car. Tim got out of the cab and walked over. “Taylor. What are you doing here Twelve?”

“Practice is over, I walked out and saw her and her car and came over and we were talking.”

Tim started to say something, looked at JD for a minute, then shook his head slightly. He walked around Julie’s car, then hitched it to the bed and started the winch. After the car was on the bed, he secured it and then opened the passenger door of the cab and helped Julie into the seat. Tim walked around to the driver side door and beckoned JD over. “C’mere Twelve. Look at me. I don’t really know what’s going on with Jules and Seven right now, because honestly it’s none of my business. Or yours. It’s between the two of them. And even if they are broke up or whatever, her porch light might be on, but that doesn’t mean you have an invitation to step onto her porch. We clear on that?” JD nodded. “Are you tryin’ to be her friend?”

“I---I’m not sure. Maybe. Look I tried to apologize for what I did earlier. I’m not her enemy. I don’t hate her or her mom or her dad. It’s my dad that doesn’t like them. Like I told Julie, I just want to play quarterback and get to State. And I don’t have any idea who did that.” JD pointed at Julie’s car.

“….Okay Twelve. But if you hear anything let me know.” Tim took a card out of his wallet and handed it to JD.”

“Sure.” JD watched Tim get in and the truck move out of the parking lot then tore the card up. “Fuck you Tim Riggins. You have _no_ idea.”


	5. Chapter 5

**One week later**

 

Julie and JD had been matched up on a project for their social studies class, and Julie had not been happy. She’d gone to the teacher and asked if she could have a different partner or do a solo project, but the teacher had waved those ideas away and said, “You either work with JD or you take an ‘F’ on the project, which given your current grade means you’ll fail this class.” Julie had given serious thought to taking the ‘F’, but decided against it as her parents would have blown their stacks and the tension at home was high enough.

The problem, well there were a couple of problems, the big one getting some time to get together and work. There wasn’t much time before school, especially since Julie was now arriving as late as possible and then staying in her car until the last late bell rang, to try and prevent her tires being slashed before school actually started. She was also spending her lunch period in her car; again a preventive measure. Of course JD had football practice after school and after the spitball and paper throwing incidents Julie wasn’t going to go and wait for JD in the library. Adding in Julie’s job at Applebee’s which was now 4 days a week there just didn’t seem to be a time. It was JD who brought up the idea of going to his house or Julie’s and working there. She’d immediately rejected going to her house, she couldn’t imagine how red her dad’s face would get if he walked in the door and saw the son of his ‘enemy’ sitting at the dinner table with his daughter. She’d been against going to JD’s house for the same reason; even after JD said that his dad was spending a lot of time out of town.

“You mean you’re there all by yourself?”

“Well, we do have a maid and a cleaning service, but I don’t really see them.”

“Well, what do you do for food? I mean, your mom made all your meals, right? You don’t go to McDonald’s or order Panther Pizza every night.”

JD looked sheepish. “I try not to order pizza more than twice a week, it’s weird, the whole strict diet was my dad’s thing, but since my mom left, he’s been….I don’t know it’s like sometimes he’s really strict about it, sometimes it’s like he never heard of it. And the maid is a pretty good cook, sometimes I’ll eat with her. Look, the maid and my dad hardly talk; if anything she liked my mom more than my dad.”

In the end they had settled for meeting and working in a corner booth at Applebee’s, at least for a little while. Julie made sure to park where she could keep an eye on her car which JD noticed. “You’re pretty paranoid about your car, aren’t you?”

Julie glared at him. “Someone’s slashed four of my tires while I was working.”

“Okay, well, why don’t you take the bus to school and I don’t know, get a ride when you’re working here.”

“From who? My mom and dad are at East Dillon and they’re working until at least six o’clock, usually longer. And all of my friends are either over at East Dillon or….” Julie shook her head, “anyway, my friends all have stuff they’re doing.”

JD looked at Julie, started to speak, looked at the table, then out the window at Julie’s car, then back at Julie. “I could give you a ride.”

Julie sat back in her seat. “Don’t do that. Don’t say that.”

“What? I---I’m just offering you a ride. You said that no one else will give you one, so I offered.”

“Well, I don’t know that no one will give me one, I haven’t asked anyone, including you.”

“Julie, you’re worried about your tires being slashed here and at school and probably everywhere else you park. Why don’t you put your car in your garage and just take the bus to school and back home. Or you could wait at school. Either way I’d give you a ride.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m gonna wait around after school anymore.” Julie sipped her ice tea. “I don’t even want to be there. I applied to transfer to East Dillon because my parents were there and never heard back, so I applied again, and they just said I was enrolled at Dillon High. And that was it. All of my friends are at East Dillon. Landry, Devon, even Lois. At Dillon it’s me and two thousand kids who hate me.”

“I’m not a friend?”

“No, you’re not. And I’m not trying to be harsh or mean, sorry if that came out that way. You’re a classmate. An acquaintance.”

“What about Matt? Why don’t you get rides from him? He’d be glad to do, we both know that.”

"Matt….Matt ca—“Julie’s lip trembled and a tear ran down her cheek and splashed on the table. She covered her face with her hands for a few seconds, not seeing the gleam that had sprang to JD’s eyes or the smirk that ran across his mouth. “Matt’s gone. And no I don’t know where he is, except that he isn’t in Dillon.”

“How can you not know? He had to tell someone where he was going, like his mom or grandmother. He has a cell phone, haven’t you called it?”

“His grandma fell and broke her leg and hip, plus she has dementia, so she’s not exactly clear headed and it doesn’t matter because I can’t visit her, it’s one of those ‘family only things. And Shelby, Matt’s mom, I don’t know where she is. She and Grandma Saracen didn’t get along very well, maybe his mom went back to Oklahoma and I don’t have her phone number.”

“Well, how about Landry? He and Matt are best friends.”

“I don’t know, I haven’t really seen or talked to him.”

“Why not? Do you even want to know where Matt is or if he’s okay?”

“I don’t know.”


	6. Chapter 6

“When’s your dad getting back?”

“He said he’s gonna try and make it to the game Friday night, but it’ll be tough, so probably Saturday.”

“Your dad is gonna miss the game?”

“I guess. He’ll see it later; he has all my games on DVD. And I mean _all_ of my games, from pee wee up to now.” JD and Scott Taylor walked through the basement of the McCoy mansion and stopped in what looked like a bedroom. “You were right, Saracen is gone.”

‘How’d you find out?”

“Julie told me the other day when we were working on our social studies project.” JD grinned. “She’s **_really_** messed up over it. We were talking about her car getting fucked with and I asked why she didn’t get a ride from someone, like her parents or Saracen.  She started crying and….it was great. She said that Saracen’s grandmother broke her leg and is in the hospital and Saracen’s mom is gone as well, so she doesn’t have any idea where he is or even if he’s alive. Best of all, she’s not sure if she wants to know where he is.”

“What? So much for true love. That’s messed up. They were really, really tight.”

“I’m not so sure. You said they broke up a couple years ago, and she started seeing this stoner musician for a while, right?”

“Yeah, but they got back together last year.”

“But they were arguing or having problems or something earlier this year, like right before he left.”

“Dude, who cares. If she was telling the truth, he’s gone. Your path is clear, right?”

“Julie’s not stupid, and she still doesn’t trust me or believe me, at least not much, and she’s gonna get suspicious if I ask her out tomorrow or show up at her house or anything like that. She said that her dad would freak out if I came over to her house. I’m gonna have to play this out for a couple weeks, maybe longer.”

Scott looked around the room. There was a king size bed against one wall and the opposite wall was open to another room from ceiling to approximately waist height.

‘You used to have a fish tank in here, I mean in that wall?”

“It was here when we moved in, with fish and everything, but my mom or dad never paid much attention to it.”

“What kind of fish?”

“I don’t know, but one of them was some kind of shark, not a man-eater or anything, but it was shark.”

“So why’d you get rid of it?”

“It was leaking, and the fish started dying. Like I’d come in and there’d be a dead fish floating on top every couple of days.”

“So how did you explain the mirror thing to your dad?”

“I told him I’d been reading about some isometric exercises and wanted to have a big mirror in the room, he doesn’t know that it’s a one way mirror.” JD and Scott walked into the room next to the bedroom. “The thing to remember is that the lights in this room need to be off or very, very low, otherwise it’s pretty much just a pane of glass.”

“What about microphones?”

“Installed last week. One centered on the bed and there’s gonna be a directional mic in here. It’s gonna be nice. We’ll test the whole thing out say, middle of next week; everything should be done by then. Bring a couple of rally girls over.” JD smirked. “Did I hear right? People are videotaping Julie getting pushed and tripped and shoved down the stairs at school? And there are videos of people slashing her tires?”

“Yeah, but they aren’t on YouTube or anything. _Yet_.”

“Nice. Tell ‘em not to put anything on the Internet yet.”

“Well, when?”

“Soon.”


	7. Chapter 7

Julie parked her car in front of Landry’s house, got out and walked up the driveway to the garage where Devin and Landry were discussing something written on a piece of paper.

“H-Hey guys.”

“Julie!” Devin walked over and hugged her. “It’s been a while, too long.”

“Yeah, where have you been hiding?”

“I haven’t been hiding Landry; we go to different schools now, though not by choice.”

“Haven’t you tried to transfer?”

“Like three times, it feels like I’m trapped at Dillon. Look, have you guys heard anything from Matt?”

Landry’s eyes shifted momentarily to Devin. “Julie, I know it’s been hard with Matt’s dad dyi—“

“Jesus, just answer the fucking question. “ Julie’s eyes flashed, while they filled with tears. “Have either of you heard from him or not?”

“No. And Devin hasn’t either. Neither have our parents. Haven’t you gone to see his grandmother or talked to his mom?”

“His mom is gone, her car is never at his house and if she is there she hasn’t answered the door when I knock or the phone when I call. His grandmother is still in the hospital and the painkillers aren’t doing her dementia nay good and they are only letting ‘Family’ visit. I—I –I just wish he called me or sent me a letter or even a telegram, even if it was to say goodbye forever.” Tears were coursing down her cheeks and splashing onto the floor of the garage. “You guys have no idea what this is like.”

“Hey, that’s not fair. Matt’s been my best friend since second grade. I care about him and miss him as much as you do. And unlike you, I’ve been loyal and stayed with him.”

Devin let out a gasp. “Look Julie, what he mea—“

“How dare you. What the fuck does that mean, that you’ve been more loyal to him than I have. I was the only one who stayed with him at the funeral when he buried his dad. Not sat with him while the grave people shoveled the dirt in, I stood there and watched Matt shovel all the dirt into that grave.”

“Yeah, and you’re also the girl who’s always been pushing him away and breaking up with him. Like two years ago, you broke up with him for, what was his name, oh yeah, The Swede. Did you **ever** find out that guy’s actual name?”

“Stop it. This isn’t some contest about who misses or is more worried about Matt. None of us have heard from him, okay? If Landry or I hear from him, the first thing we’ll do is let you know, okay?

“Well, why hasn’t he called?”

Devin glanced at Landry, then put her hand on Julie’s shoulder and started walking her down the driveway. “I don’t know. Neither does Landry. Now, if you want to be angry and mad about this, that’s fine, I think you should be. You want to yell and scream and get all riot girrl, go for it. But....look have you talked to your parents about this?

Julie rolled her eyes.

“I’m serious. Your mom was a counselor for a couple of years, so she’s dealt with this kind of thing before, well, maybe not a boyfriend disappearing and leaving town, but breakup and stuff, even if you and Matt weren’t broken up, right? Were you?”

“No….I don’t know. When we got home from the music festival, actually the whole way home it was like there was this thing hanging over us, that was just gonna crash down and…I don’t know it was us breaking up. But neither of us said it.”

Devin sighed. “Okay. Julie, I think you need to see a therapist. Even if it’s just for a couple of sessions. You can talk with them about stuff that you can’t talk with your parents about, for whatever reason. And they can’t tell your parents anything, unless, you say that like, you’re feeling suicidal or that you wanna shoot up Dillon or they notice cuts on your wrists and think you’re hurting yourself. I’m betting your mom can recommend a couple of people, and if you want I can tell her about the one I see.”

“You see a therapist?”

“Since I was in third grade. ‘Course back then I had no clue what actually went on when you saw them, or what’s supposed to happen. And yeah, it has helped. Think about it.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really? Not a single review? Even if you're reading this on Fanfiction.net and have an account here, you can comment in both places, hell just cut and paste the review from there to here.
> 
> Don't make me come to your house and eat your shag carpeting.

JD parked his car in front of the Taylors house and sat there for a moment, listening to the engine tick, then got out and walked across the lawn and rang the doorbell. He heard barking and yipping, then the door opened a bit and he saw Julie’s face.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” There was a frantic squealing sound and skittering of feet, then a thump against the door. “Jordan, calm down. Umm, I guess I should have told you.”

“What, that you have a potbellied pig?”

Julie laughed. “No, not a pig, but one of his nicknames is ‘Sir Squeals A Lot.’ We have two dogs and they spazz out sometimes when people come over. I’m gonna open the door and you can come in, they jump up when they’re excited, but they aren’t going to bite you.” She opened the door and JD stepped inside and immediately had two dogs whimpering and squealing and frantically wagging their tails and jumping and trying to lick his face or hands. “C’mon, they’ll calm down in a couple of minutes.” Julie walked towards the dining room table.

“Julie.”                  

“Yeah.”

“Are you sure you’re parents are okay with me coming over?”

“It’ll be fine.”

“Have you even told them that you’re working with me on a school project or that I’d be coming over?”

Julie sighed. “It’ll be fine. It’s not like they're gonna kick you out. Just sit down and let’s see how much of this we can get done.”

For the next hour JD and Julie sat working at the dining room table, gradually spreading out papers and books and pens and JD’s laptop with two breaks to let Payton and Jordan out and give them both cookies as a ‘reward’ for  Payton’s stealing JD’s phone and trotting off with it in her mouth, tail wagging furiously.

“Why do you give both of them, y’know,” JD tossed his head toward the cookie jar which was labeled **Payton & Jordan’s Treats** in Dillon High blue and gold. “Why give either of them a treat?”

“Oh, that’s one of Payton’s quirks, she’s not doing it to be mean, she doesn’t rip whatever she takes apart or anything, worst that happens is she drools on it for a bit. And she’s learned she gets a treat if she drops it, but if she gets a treat then so does Jordan. You can’t show favoritism to dogs, it can really mess up the chain of command of the pack.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard about that with wolves, they have like the alpha male who goes around asserting his authority all the time, and the other wolves submit to him by lying on their backs or something.”

“Yeah, and they’ll expose their throat to him. It’s symbolic, and ritualistic, but it’s not. Same thing goes with dogs.”

“So which do you like better, Payton or Jordan?”

“What? I don’t--”

“C’mon, Julie, you have to have a favorite.”

She scowled at him for a few seconds, then sighed and rolled her eyes. “Payton, I guess. We didn’t have any pets for a long time, ‘cause we were always moving every year or so, then we settled here in Dillon. When I was twelve we went to the Fair and there was a dog show with Wheatens and I fell in love with them. My dad was all, ‘We are not getting a dog’, but after a few months he came around and we got Payton. We haven’t really had to worry about people papering our house or putting **FOR SALE** signs all over the front yard since we’ve had them. They start barking and pawing at the front door. My dad’s even let them out a couple of times and they even cornered one guy, who turned out to be on the team.”

“No way.”

“Well, he wasn’t on the team after that. My dad kicked him off in front of the rest of the team the next day.”

“So he throws a guy off the team for papering his house but Tim Riggins gets to stay on the team even though he shows up drunk to practices and games, and skips practice a lot. Yeah, that’s fair.”

“Hey, I didn’t say I agreed with it. But it hasn’t just been papering and signs in the yard. We’ve had bricks thrown through windows and…other stuff. All over a high school football game.”

“So you don’t like football?”

“I….I guess I’ve learned to tolerate it. I mean, I’d go to the games, but I’d bring a book or spend most of my time hanging out at the concession stand or running around under the bleachers. It wasn’t until Matt and I started hanging out that I, I don’t know took an active interest.”

“You mean you didn’t bring a book to games anymore.”

Julie’s answer was covered by Payton and Jordan barking and whining and the sound of their claws on the tile as they ran down the hall and stood at the front door which opened and Tami came in, followed by Gracie. The two dogs whined and circled around Tami for a moment then turned their attention to Gracie frantically covering her face with licks and kiss while she squealed and patted both of them.

Tami walked down the hall and stopped when she saw JD. “Hey Julie. Hello JD, how are you?”

“I’m good ma’am, how are you?"

“Good. I have to say I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Yes ma’am, well, we got paired up for a project in social studies and with my football practice and Julie’s working at Applebee’s it was hard to find a place and time to get together to work on it. I, uh, suggested the library, but I—“

“It always closed before JD got out of practice. We met up for a little while before school a couple of times, but we decided to come here. Sorry I didn’t ask you or tell you beforehand.”

“Well, I do wish you’d told me, but….it’s okay. I don’t suppose you’d like to stay for supper JD?”

JD blushed. “Thank you ma’am but I don’t mean to impose and I’m sure Coach Taylor doesn’t want me here.” He began to clear his things off the dining room table.

“Honey, it’s fine. We’ve had Buddy Garrity over a dozen times, it’ll be fine. Although it sure won’t hurt if you could help out with supper.”

“I’m happy to help.”

“You know how to work a grill?”

“Gas or charcoal?”

“Look at you. “ Tami smiled. “It’s a gas grill on the patio. If you could go out and clean it off with the brush that’s out there, I’ll bring the steaks out in a couple of minutes. Do you eat salad?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“All right, Julie will you set the table and get the salad together please?”

Julie and Tami went into the kitchen, Julie opening the fridge while Tami watched JD go out back and slide the glass door closed.

“Jules, what are you thinking?”

“What? Everything he said is true. We got assigned to do this project and I tried to get out of it, even offered to do it by myself and the teacher said I either work with JD or take an ‘F’ for the project, which means I fail the class. I told you and dad that like 3 weeks ago. And we haven’t been able to get together and work on it because of football, as usual.”

“Well, why didn’t you go to his house or, or the town library?”

“Because his parents have split up and I didn’t want to be in that huge house with JD and his dad. And you can talk to dad and keep him calm.”

“Really? Julie, JD’s dad fired your father.”

“Actually the boosters voted to fire him.”

“Oh come on. The whole town knows what a rubber stamp vote that was. They voted the way Joe McCoy wanted them to. And why should I calm your father down?”

Julie whirled around and shouted. “Because he hasn’t done anything! Except what dad told him to do on the football field. I can understand dad’s being mad at Mr. McCoy, but JD? But if you want him to leave now, before dad gets home, fine. But I’m not going to tell him.” She turned around and threw some carrot slices in the salad.

Tami started to speak, then closed her eyes and sighed. “Okay, JD can stay, and I’ll try and I emphasize that word, to talk to your father about this.”

Tami opened the front door and went outside. She’d thought of calling Eric on his cell phone, but as usual he’d left it in the bowl where the change and car keys were kept. When he pulled up in his SUV, Tami walked over to the driver’s side door. Eric got out and kissed her. “Hey babe.”

“Sugar. Umm, look Julie has someone over and they’re going to stay for dinner, and I –“

“Who? Riggins?”

“No. JD McCoy.”

Eric’s jaw clenched and he ground his teeth. “What is JD McCoy doing in _my_ house?” He moved towards the front door.

_“Eric._ He and Julie got paired up on a project for school, and yes Julie did tell us about it, but we obviously both forgot about it with everything that’s gone on the last few weeks. They’ve had a hard time getting together to work on it and they were here when I came home. And he’s staying for supper. Listen to me, if you want to be angry and pissed off at a McCoy it should be Joe and not his son. All that boy has done is what you told him to do on the field in practice and games. You can and you will be pleasant to him while he’s here tonight. Now I’m not thrilled by this  any more than you are, but I’m not gonna throw the boy out before he eats supper with us. Not after I invited him to stay. And this is probably not going to be the only time he’s over here working on that project with Julie. But I’m certainly not going to invite him to stay for dinner every time, all right?”

“Ai’ght, but I’ve got a lot of game tape to watch so he’s not gonna be staying very long _after_ dinner.”

“Fair enough.”

“They walked inside and were greeted with wagging tails by Jordan and Payton and Eric got a hug from Gracie. He picked her up and carried her along with a plate of steaks out to the patio where JD stood tending the grill.

“Coach, how are you doing?”

“Pretty good, yourself?”

“Good. Can I take that?” JD motioned to the plate of steak.

“Thanks. You can put it on the side there.”

“Do Payton and Jordan get steak or is this just for us?”

Eric smiled and put Gracie down, watching as she walked into the back yard and frolicked with the dogs.

“Only on _very_ special occasions. Their birthdays. Thanksgiving they get some turkey. They’re already pretty spoiled. That reminds me. There isn’t gonna be _any_ feeding them from the table, is that understood? They’re probably gonna be underfoot at the table, but no sneaking them anything.”

“Yes sir. Are they allowed on the furniture?”

“Well, you don’t invite them….okay Gracie and Julie might do it, but you aren’t going to. They tend to invite themselves, well Payton does. I’ve only ever seen Jordan on any furniture once. Look, I’m not meaning to be rude, but I have a lot of game tape to go over and, well, it’d be kind of an unfair advantage to have you here watching it.”

“Oh right, right. No, that’s fine, I understand sir. Um, would you mind if I went inside and see if Julie and I can get a little more work done?”

“That’d be fine.

JD turned and walked toward the door. “JD. You’re having a really good season, but you need to work on your tell.”

“Coach?”

“I noticed it last year. You tend to tip off whether it’s gonna be a run or pass play. If it’s gonna be a pass, you have your right leg further back than your left. Makes sense, it helps you get an extra tenth of a second, but it can tip the defense off. And they will be looking for it.”

“Thanks Coach.”

Dinner was pleasant enough, though Julie noticed that Tami was careful to try and steer the conversation away from football although she did bring up the Cowboys plans for a new stadium, particularly the gargantuan video screens, which made Eric bring up the incident between Tami and the boosters over the Jumbotron at Dillon last year, though he skimmed over the controversy.

After helping clean up Julie and JD worked on their project for another 20 minutes before JD announced that he was going home. He thanked Eric and Tami and Julie for having him over and for letting him stay for dinner, got a hug goodbye from Gracie and gave Payton and Jordan some pats.


End file.
